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The Central government on Friday refused to divulge the contents of the letters between former President K R Narayanan and the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the Nanavati-Shah Commission in connection with the post-Godhra riots of 2002.
In a letter written to the two-member commission probing the Sabarmati train carnage and its aftermath, the Congress-led United Progressive government refused to send the letters to the commission saying it was part of the official communication between the former President and the then prime minister.
The contents of their communication cannot be made public property, the letter, handed over to the commission by the under secretary to the Union government Jugal Kishore, said.
S K Sinha, who is representing a section of the families affected in the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002, felt the letters written by Narayanan to Vajpayee contained crucial details about troop deployment in Gujarat where communal riots had broken out in 2002.
The commission had time and again requested Rashtrapati Bhavan to send copies of the letters to the commission, but the President's office had citied 'privilege' and refused to part with the concerned documents.
During the last hearing, Rashtrapati Bhavan sought two weeks time to send a response to the commission regarding the letters and said that it was consulting the Union government in this regard.